The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 16

LATIMES.COM/OPINION A23 OP-ED cott stunning victory will be attributed to all kinds of factors. Voter skepticism about a costly healthcare plan too complicated to be easily explained certainly played a role. But in my view, what resonated most with the citizens of Massachusetts and with independents all across our nation was admonishment that the office was not but Brown seems to get what most politicians appear to have forgotten in their naked grab for power: that the United States of America is not the country of Democrats or Republicans. Rather, it is the country. It was telling that during remarks right after his historic victory, he went out of his way to speak not as the representative of a political party but as an American.

He made clear that, in the country we all inhabit, we must figure out some way to put partisanship aside and unite on the critical issues of our time instead of focusing on the far less important matters that divide us. Idecided at a young age, growing up in abject poverty in and around Boston, that the core principles of self-responsibility, smaller government and lower taxes were the best fit for me. Today, I have given up on the Republican Party, identifying instead as an To paraphrase President Reagan, in whose administration I was honored to serve: did not leave the party. It left Disappointingly but entirely predictably, soon after the GOP regained control of the House in 1994, it morphed into what it had defeated. Pork, scandal and hypocrisy were the new laws of the land.

True conservatives were horrified not only by the behavior of the Republicans in Congress but also by the actions of a Republican White House, which dramatically increased the size of our government and debt. Sixteen years later, with the moral hypocrisy of Republican politicians such as Sens. David Vitter and John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, clear that things gotten better in the Grand Old Party. In fact, things have gotten worse.

Much worse. Not just for the Republican Party but for the nation as a whole. That is a reality that Brown may not truly grasp yet, but one he will certainly have to confront in the Senate. worth noting that during his victory remarks and his television appearances Wednesday morning, Brown went out of his way to stress the pending and growing threat of terrorism. Could this be merely political calculation? Possibly.

But we have to hope not. Healthcare may be the debate of the moment, but far more important to the future of our democracy is staying focused on the war on terror. Former Pentagon colleagues and intelligence operatives tell me constantly that we will get no second chances in that endeavor. hope Brown realizes that the kind of partisanship, pork feasts, finger-pointing, hypocrisy and lack of accountability that were accepted in the world are no longer tolerable. Distraction from the threat of terrorism today just might result in the loss of an American city.

For a quick tutorial on that subject, I suggest Brown call former Sens. Bob Graham and Jim Talent, who head up the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.Should he do so, he will learn that only by miracle or dumb luck that we have not already lost a few hundred thousand Americans to terrorism. With his remarks, Brown really does seem to get that our country and its political parties are broken. During his campaign, he understood and capitalized on the fact that many Americans especially the now legendary independents are nervous about the hard-left turn President Obama is trying to navigate with his trillion-dollar healthcare package. He hit on the growing list of broken promises, not the least of which was his pledge of complete transparency in the sausage-making process.

For at least this brief moment in time, Brown is giving some Americans hope that in him, they might have someone in Washington who prizes adult leadership and accountability over self-interest and party loyalty. He beat the machine in Massachusetts. Now we must hope he has what it takes to vanquish the entrenched and destructive special interests in Washington. Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official. He served as press secretary to former Sen.

Bob Dole and is the author of three novels. Brown wins Douglas MacKinnon In victory, he spoke not as a member of a political party but as an American. limate change just what it used to be. Case in point: The number of otherwise intelligent people who are saying that all the cold weather (in the East) and rain (here at home) are causing them to lose faith in the gospel of global warming. To their way of thinking, fine and good to be bellyaching about rising sea levels when 100 degrees outside.

easy to remember to carry around your reusable tote bag when drought begets parched hillsides, which beget wildfires, which beget air that smells like rotisserie chicken minus the chicken. But guess what? been pouring all week. In Florida, the oranges are perishing under frost. The temperature bottomed out at minus 52 in North Dakota earlier this Beijing recently had its biggest snowfall since 1951. Remember back in 2006 and 2007? Everyone was talking about Inconvenient parading those eco-bags around and coveting hybrid cars.

Laurie previously been known chiefly as the wife of Seinfeld co-creator Larry suddenly a quasi-famous person, palling around with Sheryl Crowand ranting about CO 2 emissions on the Huffington Post. In fact, back then, it seemed like the entire world was buddies with Sheryl Crow and blog- ging on the HuffPo. We spent 2006 suspicious that Hurricane Katrina was a manifestation of global warming. In 2007, it was California wildfires. Then Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize and the U.N.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate concluded that humans were almost certainly responsible for rising temperatures. To top it off, Laurie David filed for divorce and made the pages of People. Those were the days! Maybe the financial crisis has diverted our attention from the melting Arctic ice cap. Maybe Sarah Palin effectively redirected all liberal indignation straight in her direction. Maybe there were just too many eco-related marital conflicts.

(Atrend story in the New York Times recently reported that therapists are seeing an increase in couples who clash in their approaches to recycling and organic gardening. Did we learn nothing from the calamitous breakupof the Davids?) maybe the conditions noware just too conducive to climate change skepticism. Not that anyone ever gazed out at a blizzard and thought, is global deserves to be labeled a denier. We all know (we do, we?) that weather is not the same as climate. not that we want to save the planet anymore; just that it somehow seem quite as urgent.

Results from a Gallup Poll released last March showed that of Americans think global warming is exaggerated an increase from 2006 and the highest since Gallup began asking about it in 1997. Meanwhile, the December climate change summit in Copenhagen was done few favors by the Climategatescandal the incident in which a number of e-mails were made public that suggested climate scientists were cherry- picking data and tampering with peer review procedures in an effort to downplay anything that might serve as ammunition for global warming skeptics. Maybe we be too quick to mythologize the verdure of years past, or to castigate ourselves for taking a few extra minutes in the shower or for not wanting a Prius the way a little girl wants a pony. Consider this about good old 2006: It was ascorcher. It was febrile.

It was partly sunny with a chance of Hades. Moreover, it came on the heels of something even hotter: 2005. That year is tied with 1998 as the hottest ever. In fact, NASA reports that the first seven years of the decade were among the warmest on record for average global surface temperature. Remember how on July 22, thermometer hit 112 degrees in downtown L.A.? Remember going to see Inconvenient several times not necessarily because it was so compelling but because the theater was air-conditioned? This weather may be less convenient for the global warming it change the facts climate is changing.

the rub, though: In order for a cause to resonate, people need simple, clear evidence. They need tangibles. And what could be more tangible than opening your door and being hit by a blast of fiery air? Science, alas, is complicated and weather has always been as predictable as, well the weather. Maybe why, if really interested in the truth about global warming or anything else it helps to get beyond outside our own doors and windows. Just not this week.

nastyout there. Wet between the ears MEGHAN DAUM ne hundred years ago today, the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay opened its doors. From 1910 to 1940, the Island of the was the gateway into America for more than half a million immigrants from 80 countries, all seeking the opportunity, freedom and fortune of the American dream. Among them was a Chinese immigrant who carved the following poem into the barrack walls while detained on Angel Island: I clasped my hands in parting with my brothers and classmates. Because of the mouth, I hastened to cross the American ocean.

How was I to know that the western barbarians had lost their hearts and reasons? With a hundred kinds of oppressive laws, they mistreat us Chinese. We do not know who he was, when he arrived, how long he remained at the immigration station or whether he was admitted into the United States or sent back to China. What we do know is that his poem echoed the frustration, angerand despair that many other Chinese detainees on Angel Island experienced as they suffered through humiliating medical exams, days of intense interrogationand weeks and sometimes months of confinement. Built to enforce laws that specifically excluded Chinese and other Asian immigrants from the country, the Angel Island Immigration Station turned away countless newcomers and deported thousands of U.S. residents who were considered risks to the nation or had entered the country with fraudulent papers.

For those who were denied entry because of race and class-biased exclusion laws, Angel Island showed America at its worst as a gate-keeping nation. But that the only Angel Island story. The immigration station was also the first stop for thousands of Chinese, Japanese, South Asians and Filipinos who were admitted into the countryand made homes here, working as farmhands, small-business ownersand laborers. Koreans, Russians and Mexicans passed through the station and found refuge from political persecution and revolutionary chaos in their homelands. Some who spent time on Angel Island went on to become notable figures.

Karl Yonedawas a prominent labor organizer on the West Coast. Alexandra daughter of Leo Tolstoy, founded the Tolstoy Foundation and assisted thousands of refugees from Europe during World War II. Dong Kingmanbecame an artist and lecturer well known for his watercolors. In 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station closed after a fire gutted its administration building. Since 1997, it has been a National Historic Landmark.

Now, on its centennial, itoffers a timely lesson as America once again turns its attention to the debate on immigration reform. Last month, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez a new comprehensive immi- gration reform bill in the House. President Obama has pledged to take up the issue early this year.

The issues are complex and the emotions are high. The country, entrenched in a global recession and suffering unemployment rates that are the highest they have been in decades, remains divided over possible solutions to our immigration problem. Many believe that immigration reform is unlikely in this context. We hope that they are wrong. In the 21st century, record numbers of immigrants have come to the country.

There are now more than 38 million foreign-born residents in the United States, making up 12.6% of the American population. We need a functioning immigration system to enhance national security; to expedite the legal flow of people and goods on which our global economy depends; to support values as a compassionate nation of immigrants and refugees. We need, in essence, an immigration policy that treats every individual with dignity and respect. Instead, we repeat the darkest side of Angel history. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 32,000 people are held in detention on any given day on immigration- related charges.

Many of them are longtime U.S. residents with no ties to terrorist activities. Yet they are held for months in substandard conditions, oftenwith insufficient food, clothing and medical care, and little access to legal counsel; 107 people have died in detention since October 2003.Growing anti- immigrant sentiment is breeding discrimination. Immigration laws are skewed to favor those with certain skills and backgrounds, while deportees are disproportionately Latino and poor. Our broken immigration system encourages undocumented immigration, and too many immigrant families are living in the shadows of American society.

contradictory relationship to immigration is written on the walls of Angel Island. We welcome the masses yearning to be but at the same time, we unfairly detain and deport immigrants based on flawedimmigra- tion policies. On this landmark date in our immigration history, we should remember Angel multiracial history of inclusion and exclusion and recognize that there is no more time to waste. time to fix immigration and fulfill promise as a nation of immigrants. Erika Lee is associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota.

Judy Yung is professor emeritus of American studies at UC Santa Cruz. They are the authors of the forthcoming book, Island: Immigrant Gateway to At door Los Angeles Times FUTURE Thousands of immigrants were detained at the Island of the Erika Lee and Judy Yung On its centennial, Angel Island offers a timely lesson as the U.S. again turns its attention to immigration reform..